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21 May 2002
War for the Foreseeable Future
It is now official American government policy to insist on support for its
war (You�re either with us or against us�). Vice President Cheney�s abrupt
dismissal of congressional calls for a wider investigation into the events
leading up to 911 came close to calling anyone asking questions a traitor.
This is so ridiculous it would be funny were these people not so well armed.
We have met the enemy, and he is us�
The fact that it was the leader of the opposition, Tom Daschle, who was the
most prominent target of an anthrax attack last year is one of those things
that people in polite society don�t say much about. The grade of anthrax in
the letter to Daschle has been identified as a weaponised strain of the
virus only produced by the US Army. Barbara Rosenberg of the Federation of
American Scientists has done the most thorough analysis of last year�s
anthrax attacks and come to some disturbing conclusions: he or she is one of
us.
http://www.fas.org/bwc/news/anthraxreport.htm
This makes the Watergate burglary look pretty tame, and that brought down a
government. The mainstream press is beginning to catch up on this story, but
only the likes of George Monbiot have the courage to ask the hard questions.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4417654,00.html
Casus Belli
A professional colleague not to long ago observed that people who conduct
suicide attacks were somehow deranged and not worthy of respect. We were of
course speaking about the problem in Palestine. I offered that perhaps it
was a case of having their backs so firmly pressed against the wall that it
was case of desperate measures for desperate times. We didn�t agree.
Anyone who thinks that the horror is just going to stop needs to look at the
maps contained in this link. Israeli settlements control over 40 of the West
Bank and 80% of the water. A look at the map shows how fragmented
Palestinian controlled land has become. Indeed, events of the last year or
so demonstrate conclusively that they are not in fact in control of even
that. Whichever side of this issue you may be on, the main conclusion to be
drawn is that the fighting is not going to end in the foreseeable future.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/forum/document_details.asp?CatID=127&DocID=1380
A Global War�
If Palestine is just one battleground in a global war on terror, then we
should really be analysing it in a broader context. We have said all along
that the global strategic objective is to monopolise the supply and
distribution of oil. To that end, a redrawing of the Middle Eastern
political cartography is seen in some quarters as desirable. Certainly,
control over Yemen, which is situated opposite the Horn of Africa and
controls access to the Red Sea and consequently to the Suez Canal, is
necessary. Yemen is not a willing participant in the War on Terror. How
inconvenient. Clearly someone is going to try and do something about that,
irrespective of consequences.
http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp0520.html
Same war, different music�
Similarly, on the northern littoral of Latin America, Venezuela and Columbia
form another theatre of operations. Venezuela, of course, is the biggest
foreign supplier of oil to the United States. Columbia flanks that oil and
its export route. Clearly that requires control of Columbia, if for no other
reason than to prevent bandit or rebels from sabotaging pipelines and
demanding taxes from the oil companies, as they are wont to do. That doesn�t
mean of course that you can�t do business with bandits, as the chairman of
the New York Stock Exchange made clear several years ago when he journeyed
to Columbia to pitch the FARC on the wisdom of investing in the US. He seems
to have been unsuccessful, and the US has found someone more to its liking.
http://www.narconews.com/uribevsthepress.html
Getting labour costs down
On a different note, Dell Computer has gone into business with Unicor, using
prison labour to do the work in its E-Waste service for corporate customers.
With the employment cost index still rising at a smart 4% per annum, the
attractions to Dell of labour costing around a buck an hour is plain.
Whether or not this is a good idea generally is one of those topics that we
are not, I suppose, meant to discuss. The growing parallels between the
American prison labour system and China�s prison labour are plain, but hell,
we buy Chinese stocks don�t we?
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-917155.html?tag=fd_top
European American rift?
Anyone wondering why Europeans might feel uncomfortable with their Amreican
allies need only read this for an explanation. James Schlesinger, former
defence secretary and member of the Defense Policy Board, which is to say
that he�s a big noise. For sheer arrogance, this is hard to beat.
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c
=StoryFT&cid=1021912547865&p=1012571727126
In case you are wondering just what is the Defense Policy Board, this tells
you.
http://www.odam.osd.mil/omp/pdf/412.pdf
Chris Sanders
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